Mobility, not Unified Communications, top priority for businesses

Unified Communications (UC) is getting a lot of publicity in the tech media these days. But the big push by manufacturers to integrate chat and presence with existing communication systems may not drive sales as much as initially expected.

A recent Forrester survey of 2,187 North American and European companies stated there is "confusion about the value" of unified communications for their company. It seems that UC is regarded as a "nice, but not critical" application for communication systems. In fact, UC is not even the number 1 priority for corporations, mobility is. 64% of the respondents in the Forrester survey indicate that "providing more mobility support to employees is a priority", with 23% citing it as a critical priority.

Unfortunately, mobility is a trickier topic than UC for many communication systems due to the complexities of multiple cellular carriers, mobile devices, and operating systems. Getting all 3 pieces of that puzzle to work together is a daunting task. However it does generate a call to action for future investment and upgrading of communication technology. Extending the desktop to the mobile space adds many levels of value and an enhanced ROI to a communication system.

Unified Communication could find a niche spot in the marketplace riding the coat tails of mobility. As UC becomes more common, many manufacturers will begin to offer it as a standard feature and not an enhanced (think more money) add-on with true enterprise mobility becoming the featured enhancement. UC can provide a nice complement to mobility extending enterprise chat, presence, and even GPS personnel location to a mobile device.

Soon, users will have access to UC apps as easily as traditional e-mail and unified messaging (voice mail merged with e-mail). Remember, these features were once heralded as high-end cutting edge applications as well.

Somebody let me know when they merge mobility with video conferencing, that will be interesting.

Increased Travel Costs Driving Demand for Video Conferencing

It's no shocker that higher oil and energy prices are putting pressure on business travel. CNBC.com is reporting that these increased travel costs are beginning to reflect on the bottom line of technology companies that can provide video conferencing and collaboration products.

The article reports that "Manpower has ramped up use of its video conference equipment in the last couple of months" and "office furniture maker Herman Miller has encouraged employees to use video conferencing in addition to conference calls and car-pooling to cut operating costs".

Manufacturers that focus on unified communication, video conferencing and teleworking can offer businesses enhanced cost savings and increase ROI in these difficult times. However, until the recent spike in energy pricing, demand for these applications was lukewarm at best. Many IT managers looked at these features as a burden on the network and as a low priority item due to cost and difficulty to deploy.

Amazingly enough, these ROI driving features are not a terrible burden on the network, overly expensive or difficult to deploy, depending on the product of course. VoIP communication developer ShoreTel's latest software release, ShoreTel 8, provides video conferencing and teleworking functionality right out of the box. ShoreTel 8 also supports integration with Microsoft OCS to provide presence and chat functionality integrated with PBX features.

Economic predictions do not foresee travel and energy costs going down anytime soon. IT directors get ready, the CEO might be knocking on your door and asking about video conferencing sooner than you think.

ShoreTel upgrades its call manager and adds new voice switches

Network World has posted an article about the ShoreTel 8 release that was reported here back in April. The article gives an overview of the new ShoreGear switches and Personal Call Manager software. You can find some of it below and the remainder here.

Credit: NetworkWorld.com

ShoreTel earlier this week announced several software and hardware upgrades and two new voice switches. Included in the announcement are enhancements to the ShoreWare Call Manager product line, more open interfaces for integration, and adds two new voice switches: the ShoreGear 24A and the ShoreGear 30.

The ShoreWare Personal Call Manager has been upgraded to provide more intuitive interfaces. Added features include an integrated client user interface with a main display for calling features and tabs for messages and history; simplified access to features designed to be easier to use and find; quick and easy dialing with exchange and phone directory along with just in time telephony presence; and a simplified, single-level user interface with personal and advanced merged options.

The ShoreWare Professional Call Manager has added improvements to its basic voice communications and it now provides automatic and on-demand video communications. The Instant Messaging interface upgrades include easy sidebar conversations; on the phone communications; and interfaces for a third party presence server. The unified communications suite has added improved call control, video calling and IM access and a rich presence integration; the suite now also supports a softphone.

IT departments must prepare for $200 a barrell oil and rising demand for teleworkers

Here's an interesting article from TechRepublic blogger Bill Detwiler regarding the price of oil effecting demand for teleworking and the impact on corporate networks. As oil prices rise, businesses will take a harder look at allowing employees to work from home instead of incurring the cost of commuting on a daily basis.

Many organizations provide automobiles and pay for the cost of gas for some of their employees, which can be a large financial burden as oil prices rise. Accent has a large fleet of service vehicles and vehicles for certain office personnel that accumulate a significant fuel bill each month. Personally, my business travels amount to $100 - $125 per week in fuel. Multiply that by 20 and one can understand the reason for increased demand in teleworking

Check out the article and link to the site below.

Credit: TechRepublic.com

Admins, start your VPNs! As oil and gas prices soar, IT organizations should prepare to support more remote workers.

On Tuesday, Goldman Sachs analyst Arjun N. Murti predicted that oil prices may hit $150 or even $200 a barrel in the next six months to two years. Murti believes this “super-spike” will be driven by a lack of adequate growth in supply and could lead to demand rationing in developed nations (particularly the United States). Whether Murti’s prediction comes to fruition or not, fuel prices and transportation costs are likely to continue their steep rise for the foreseeable future–barring the unlikely discovery of new, easily-accessible oil reserves or the rapid development of alternative energy sources.

As transportation costs rise, organizations and workers will look for ways to reduce travel. For many employees, this will mean working from home to eliminate the daily commute. As I wrote in response to IBM’s prediction that the “virtual workplace will become the rule”, I’m not convinced the traditional office workplace is in immediate peril, but I believe a hybrid model will emerge. Employees will work from home a few days each week.

Today’s lesson: Start preparing now

Many IT organizations, particularly in large enterprises, already support a distributed workforce. IT leaders within this category should ensure their infrastructure has the capacity to support increased demand. IT departments not currently supporting remote users should begin exploring their options now. At the very least, you should make certain your network can support existing remote workplace technologies. Also, IT will not be immune from this trend. IT leaders must develop the skills and techniques required to manage a distributed workforce.

Here are resources that can help you support and manage remote workers:

• TechRepublic’s VPN Policy
• TechRepublic’s Remote Access Policy
• Learn the basics of virtual private networks (VPNs)
• 10 tools to help your remote workers stay in touch
• Fixed Mobile Convergence can centralize business numbers and reduce airtime
• Use special project management techniques for dispersed teams
• Unified communications: What it means to your business
• Why unified communications bring out the best in VoIP
• Unified communications terminology cheat sheet
• Presence: What is it, and why do you need it?
• Managing mobile devices the Microsoft way
• 10 things you should do before letting users take their laptops out the door
• Mobile devices are the new network perimeter: Can they be secured?
• It’s 9:00am: Do you know where your people are?

ShoreTel partner brings HD videoconferencing for less to marketplace

This is an article from Networkworld.com regarding LifeSize Communications. LifeSize is a ShoreTel development partner that recently developed ShoreTel's IP8000 conference phone. LifeSize's recent development of HD video conferencing should blend well with ShoreTel's enhancements in their platform regarding video conferencing.

ShoreTel's latest software release, 8.0, already supports embedded video conferencing through the Personal Call Manager application. This feature allows users to simply click a button and create an ad-hoc video call at the desktop. With a strong partnership between LifeSize and ShoreTel already in existence, it seems logical to conclude that we may see HD video conferencing supported by the ShoreTel system in the near future.

Credit: Networkworld.com

LifeSize Communications has a new high-definition IP audio/video package that drops the previous lowest price of its gear for one site by $1,000.

Called LifeSize Focus, the bundle consists of an HD fixed-focus camera and dual omni-directional microphone integrated in a single device as well as a video coder-decoder.

The $5,000 price tag knocks $1,000 off the previous low-end LifeSize offering, LifeSize Express, whose camera and microphone come separately.

The company says the less-expensive gear is an alternative to full telepresence systems that include multiple cameras, screens, microphones, custom designed rooms and matching furniture that can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars per site.

While the LifeSize packages don't provide the same telepresence atmosphere, they do produce high quality audio and video that can be deployed at small sites or even home offices where the cost of a full telepresence system would be prohibitive.

Conferencing consultants say an approximation of telepresence without building dedicated rooms to house the equipment can deliver 80% of the effect of a full system. Businesses are adopting telepresence as a way to cut travel budgets and reduce their contributions to greenhouse gasses by flying fewer employees around the globe.

The camera supports 1280 x 720 video images at 30 frames per second, and can focus from 8 inches to infinity in a range of lighting conditions.

Unified communications: Is your network ready?

Credit: NetworkWorld.com

By David Newman, Network World Lab Alliance , Network World , 04/28/2008

Here are five questions for enterprise network managers to bear in mind when considering UC deployment:

1. What applications need to be unified communications-enabled?

Many enterprise IT organizations divide responsibility for networking and applications into two groups. Unified communications requires both application and network infrastructure support, so that means getting both groups on board before deployment. Enabling unified communications support may involve a little or a lot of work, depending on the application. For some messaging and VoIP applications, presence support may already be built-in.

Other applications – such as databases, CRM packages and especially custom-developed transaction-processing programs – may lack presence support altogether. Identifying which applications will need unified communications support, and getting the appropriate development help if needed, is a necessary first step.

2. What existing network infrastructure supports unified communications?

Passing along presence information in a unified communications-enabled network usually means supporting new protocols and/or adding infrastructure services. With location-based unified communications services, for example, DNS servers may need to be updated with SRV (service type) and LOC (location) records. Other infrastructure services, such as those for e-mail and instant messaging, may need to be extended. Presence information (for example, to move availability status between voice and instant-messaging systems) can be added via SIMPLE or XMPP.

Security is always a concern whenever adding new pathways through the network. Most unified communications systems can use centralized directory servers such as those based on Lightweight Directory Access Protocol or Microsoft Active Directory to authenticate users or processes seeking to communicate. And firewalls and other security devices will need to be reconfigured to support new messaging protocols – not just SIMPLE and XMPP but also any proprietary messaging protocols such as those used by AOL Instant Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, and the like.

3. What about presence for existing PBXs?

Telephony systems have supported presence services for decades (think do-not-disturb and call-forwarding features), but that doesn't necessarily translate into unified communications support for messaging, video and other data types. It's relatively easy to add presence support to open-source platforms such as Asterisk or OpenSER. For proprietary PBXs (even those based on derivatives of the ITU's H.323 specs), more work may be needed. Check with your PBX vendor about adding support for presence protocols such as SIMPLE and/or XMPP.

4. How will you manage unified communications?

Given the huge interest in collapsing services into centralized data centers, it may make sense to add and manage unified communications from a central location as well. During trials, for example, it's far easier to locate a single Jabber server at a central data center rather than to distribute servers throughout the enterprise and then try to keep them all in sync. Centralized management also can simplify change management. Alternatively, unified communications can be totally outsourced as well; professional services groups at major PBX vendors such as Avaya and Siemens offer unified communications as a service.

5. What about unified communications support for future applications?

Because the concept of unified communications is so broad, it's quite likely additional applications and network services will eventually be needed, well after initial deployment. Experience during initial trials may be instructive: If it's difficult to integrate, say, LDAP support into one application, then adding it to 10 applications could prove far more challenging. A post-mortem after initial deployment will help you understand which of unified communications' many parts do and don't work in your organization.

Startup finds flaws in popular VoIP products

Credit: SC MagazineUS.com

The Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) products of Avaya, Cisco and Nortel are filled with more than 100 vulnerabilities, according to a report from VoIPshield Laboratories, the research arm of security startup VoIPshield Systems.

The flaws could be exploited by a hacker to extort users via denial-of-service threats, industrial espionage through call recording, or identity theft by stealing sensitive customer information, according to VoIPshield.

VoIPshield said it notified the vendors of its findings earlier this year. Under the terms of the company's disclosure policy, VoIPshield is working with the three vendors to help recreate the vulnerabilities in their own test labs. It is also offering its services to assist the trio to find fixes for the bugs.

"The message is: enterprises need to take VoIP security seriously," Rick Dalmazzi, president and chief executive officer of VoIPshield, told SCMagazineUS.com. "For all the money and attention given to data security, people are putting in VoIP systems and not securing them anywhere near what they're doing with their data systems.

"We want to see VoIP networks treated the same way as data networks," he added. "VoIP networks are vulnerable to the same kinds of exploits, only those specific to voice."

The vulnerabilities in the three companies' products could allow an attacker to take over a VoIP phone system, use the phone system to distribute a worm or virus, or jump to a data network and steal sensitive information, Dalmazzi said.

VoIPshield lists the vulnerabilities on its website. According to VoIPshield, it has categorized each vulnerability based on an exploit's most likely malicious intent: unauthorized access, code execution, denial of service or information harvesting.

The company has also given each vulnerability a severity rating based on a modified industry standard index. Vendor responses are also included, indicating what action, if any, the vendor has indicated it plans to take to remediate the vulnerability, and when.

You can see the complete article here.

Phillies Cover All Bases with Mitel IP Communications

PHILADELPHIA, Pa. and OTTAWA, Ont. – April 23, 2008 – There’s still a long way to go in the 2008 baseball season before the Philadelphia Phillies can call themselves World Series Champions, but only weeks into it they can claim to be a leader with their IP communications system thanks to Mitel.

Enjoying a 25-year relationship that began in 1983, Mitel has continued to serve the communications needs of one of baseball’s most historic teams with strategic upgrades that preserve their initial investment by reusing all the administrative digital and analog phones.

To continue filling Citizens Bank Park by making ticket purchases as easy as possible for their fans, the Phillies have now deployed the Mitel Customer Interaction Solutions, including Mitel Messaging Server, with a feature-rich Mitel 3300 IP Communications Platform (ICP) and the Mitel Intelligent Queue, Mitel Contact Center Management and Mitel Interactive Visual Queue with a Mitel SX-2000. They also deployed more than 700 Mitel phones throughout the organization.

The Mitel solutions route calls to the longest idle agent or a preferred agent. Intelligent Queue allows Phillies ticketing personnel to better serve callers in queue by sending them to the agents best qualified to handle their requests, while providing those fans with flexible alternatives to waiting in line.

With Interactive Visual Queue, the team is able to handle dynamic shifts in call volume (such as during a pennant race and playoffs) by supporting an immediate change in call routing and ensuring contact center resources are deployed in the most efficient manner possible.

And because all types of people love baseball, the Messaging Server boasts an automated attendant with multilingual capabilities, and unified messaging, while supporting a wide range of e-mail systems including: Lotus Notes, Novell GroupWise, Microsoft® Exchange 5.5, and Exchange 2000.

View the complete press release here.

ShoreTel Ranked Among Silicon Valley's Top 150 Public Companies

SUNNYVALE, Calif., April 18 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- ShoreTel(R), Inc.
(Nasdaq: SHOR), a leading provider of Pure IP Unified Communications
solutions, announced today that the San Jose Mercury News has included
ShoreTel in the 2007 Silicon Valley 150, ranking the company number 148
with $117.5 million in reported revenue for CY 2007. ShoreTel earned even
higher marks for other report metrics, including 126th in market
capitalization at $219.8 million, 95th in profit at $8.3 million and 70th
in profit margin at 7 percent.

The San Jose Mercury News, recognized as the newspaper of record for
the Northern California technology business region, conducts the annual
Silicon Valley 150, ranking public companies headquartered in Santa Clara,
Santa Cruz, southern San Mateo and southern Alameda Counties. Companies are
evaluated on the basis of worldwide revenues for the most recent available
four quarters. Market capitalization -- the number of shares outstanding
multiplied by the price of a single share -- is as of March 31, the last
trading day of the first quarter of 2008.

Throughout 2007, ShoreTel maintained a steady stream of partner,
product and customer announcements.

The company celebrated winning numerous prestigious awards, including
Inc. magazine 5000 award, Deloitte Technology Fast 500 in North America and
Fast 50 in the San Francisco Bay Area, and Silicon Valley/San Jose Business
Journal Fast 50.

The Silicon Valley 150 was published in the April 13, 2008 edition of
the San Jose Mercury News.

ShoreTel VP discusses unified communications

Credit: NoJitter Podcast

Steve Timmerman, Vice President of Marketing, ShoreTel, discusses the growing role for desktop video in enterprise communications, mobility, and the relative importance of hardware and software in enterprise communications networking, with NoJitter Editor and Lead Blogger Eric Krapf.

Unified Communications the Next Step for VoIP

Human latency, it's an elaborate term for something that we each experience regularly, the time it takes for someone to return a communication. Whether that communication is via phone, e-mail, text or any other method, human latency costs corporations millions each year.

The latest wave in communications is designed around eliminating human latency by providing a variety of features centered around presence information and mobility features in the workplace. Leveraging existing VoIP networks, communication systems are now providing presence information, real-time chat, on-demand video communication, mobility, and document collaboration to users. These features are referred to as unified communications, every avenue to communicate with someone available at the user's fingertips.

Users can now see the corporate contacts available to speak, chat, collaborate on a project, and video conference all in one interface. Corporate connectivity can even be extended to the mobile device to provide the same information seen at the desktop. These enhancements are allowing people to communicate faster and more efficiently, eliminating the issue of human latency. Some people may look at unified communications as overdoing it, but connecting with the right person at the right time is critical to getting the job done efficiently and ensuring the bottom line.